Stacey Menchel Kussell
By Stacey Menchel Kussell
-
Culture ‘Minus 16’ Is Plus for Ailey
‘Don’t make it look pretty,” Danielle Agami said as she directed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during a recent rehearsal. “It’s not about the construction of beauty, it’s about the sensation. Every gesture, posture, and breath is beautiful. Just let your body be.” Agami, a former member of Batsheva Dance Company, spent November at…
-
The Schmooze Gallim Dance Makes Waves in Manhattan
Photo by Franziska Strauss Every morning on her way to dance rehearsal with the Batsheva Dance Ensemble, Andrea Miller would walk along the beach and breath in the cool, saline air. Hatayelet, Tel Aviv’s beach promenade, gave her a perfect view of the surfers. “Surfers understand the world in this perfect way,” said Miller. “They…
-
The Schmooze When Israeli Dance Goes Abroad
“Jewish people were historically a people of the book, reading Torah and studying,” said Noa Wertheim at the recent panel discussion, “The Diaspora of Israeli Dance.” “Now reconnecting with their ancient Mediterranean, working and cultivating the land, they have rediscovered their bodies and it is like an explosion.” The idea that the physicality of Israeli…
-
Culture Bringing Modern Dance Down to Earth
Noa Wertheim stands onstage with the Vertigo Dance Company, adjusting a dancer’s leg and redirecting a turn. If she disagrees with a step, her head shakes a cascade of wispy, brown hair into her eyes. Wertheim is an architect. She constructs an edifice of movement, pattern and line. Working toward perfection in every rehearsal, she…
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Jimmy Carter’s death: Assessing the 39th president’s record on Israel and the Jews
- 2
Fast Forward Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winner behind ‘Maus,’ plans graphic novel about Gaza
- 3
Opinion I was wrong about Israel. I apologized. Then President Carter gave me a lesson in grace
- 4
Books This devastating story of a hidden child during WWII will change how you think about France and the Holocaust
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump names former foe to Middle East team
-
Culture What’s the best thing to say to a mourner? A rabbi responds
-
Fast Forward In exit interview, Secretary of State Blinken reflects on U.S.-Israel tensions and the struggle for a ceasefire in Gaza
-
Fast Forward Elissa Slotkin sworn into Senate on Reform movement women’s Torah commentary
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism